Pro-Palestinian Protesters in U.S. Cities Call for Violent ‘Intifada’ Against Israel

Pro Palestinian protesters face off with a group of Israel supporters and police in a viol
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Joshua Klein

As Palestinian violence on the Temple Mount has intensified in recent days, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated in U.S. cities calling for deadly violence and an end to the Jewish state. In one incident, a Jewish counter-protester was allegedly punched in the face for carrying an Israeli flag.

Over the last week, anti-Israel demonstrators in the United States publicly called for an end to the State of Israel as they advocated for a violent uprising against the Jewish state.

At one rally in Los Angeles, protestors were seen waving Palestinian flags, with signs calling to “Free Palestine” and end “ethnic cleansing.”

In a clip of the event, a woman leads the crowd to the chant: “We don’t want two states, we want all of ‘48,” in reference to Israel’s establishment in 1948 and the so-called “two-state solution,” which calls for the creation of a Palestinian state in exchange for peace with the Jewish state.

However, every Israeli offer for statehood has been rejected by the Palestinians, and in most cases, countered with major escalations in violence, including the infamous launching of the deadly Second Intifada in response to the Camp David peace talks.

“No peace on stolen land,” the woman is also seen shouting, in support of the violent Palestinian riots that have taken place in Israel over the last week.

In another clip, protesters chant, “Long live the intifada!” in reference to the violent uprisings against the Jewish state.

Palestinians have launched two intifadas against the Jewish state, the second of which took place at the start of the millennium and saw hundreds of terror attacks and thousands of deaths over a four-year span.

In New York, protesters carried signs supporting “resistance” and “revolution,” and freedom for “Palestine” “from the river to the sea.” 

Implying that “Palestine” rests between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea — where Israel currently exists — the statement is code for eradicating the Jewish state and its millions of Jewish citizens.

According to StopAntisemitism, a watchdog group dedicated to fighting antisemitic incitement, a Jewish counter-protester with an Israeli flag was physically assaulted at the midtown Manhattan rally.

Other signs called for Palestinian liberation “by any means necessary.”

Protesters also called for the release of all Palestinian prisoners — many convicted of violent crimes, including murder, of innocent Israeli civilians — while “saluting their leadership in the liberation movement.”

The rally was chaired by Nerdeen Kiswani, founder of Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine (WOL).

Kiswani won the title “antisemite of the year” by Stopantisemitism.org last year following several incidents of terrorist glorification, threatening violence, and having been accused of spreading hate “by disguising it as criticisms of Israel.”

Kiswani is also the former president of the City of New York University (CUNY) branch of the radical Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), whose activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated, and harassed Jewish students on campus.

According to WOL’s website, the group opposes Zionism, which it describes as “a settler-colonial white supremacist ideology,” and rejects any peaceful “collaboration and dialogue” with Zionist groups. 

“The liberation of Palestine requires the abolition of zionism,” it declares.

The site also calls for both foreign and domestic resistance against the U.S., claiming to “uphold the right of all oppressed nationality people in the United States and around the world to engage in all forms of struggle in pursuit of freedom.” 

“We have a responsibility as those living within the United States to resist the violence of the U.S. empire at home and abroad,” the site states. “As Internationalists, we believe that all people have the right to self-determination, and we stand in solidarity with all national liberation struggles across the globe resisting U.S. imperialism.”

After one rally in New Jersey, participants were seen outside a Jewish fraternity house at Rutgers University in an attempt to harass the Jewish students.

Similar protests took place in Berlin and London.

In Berlin, demonstrators were caught on film screaming “dirty Jews.”

The protests come as ongoing clashes between Israeli forces and violent Palestinian rioters have erupted on the Temple Mount, following visits of Jews to the site and the rioters’ attempts to prevent them from doing so.

In one incident, a group of Jewish worshippers in the Old City of Jerusalem was filmed being violently attacked by several Palestinians.

The mount is Judaism’s holiest site and Islam’s third holiest. It is administered by the Jordanian Islamic Waqf, which prohibits Jewish and Christian prayer.

Jews are currently barred from entering until the end of Ramadan at the start of next month.

On Wednesday, Israeli police were attacked with rocks and firebombs hurled from within the mosque, with some igniting fires within the mosque. Several Palestinian were arrested as a result.

“The violence endangers worshipers attempting to enter the mosque, and impeded police efforts to ensure freedom of worship at the site,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. “The Molotov Cocktails set fire to a mat and a window causing fires that luckily were extinguished before greater damage was done.”

The current tensions follow a terror wave in Israel that saw several attacks on Israeli citizens over two weeks, resulting in 14 deaths.

The deadliest occurred in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak, claiming five lives. Palestinians in multiple cities came out in masses to celebrate the attacks while handing out sweets to passersby.

Follow Joshua Klein on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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